Instagram Bookbinding Challenge: June / Hardware Store

I've been participating in an online bookbinding community challenge, where each month bookmakers from around the world challenge themselves to create a book on a chosen theme for the month. After the heavy theme of Grief in May, the theme for June was much lighter: Hardware Store.

For this month's theme of #hardwarestore , we were to find some materials at a hardware store that aren't normally used for bookbinding. My book is a Jacob's Ladder book structure, which can also be a toy. 

The first thing I did when planning my book was to head over to my local ArtsJunktion instead of the Hardware Store. I knew I would find linoleum samples and other hardware materials there, that had been discarded by local businesses. So win-win for me and the environment!

Next, I painted a tyvek mailing envelope, also found at ArtsJunktion, to cut into the ribbons holding it together. I love the texture of the veins in the tyvek when you paint it!

Construction wasn't too difficult, and I only messed up once when attaching the layers together! I forgot to criss-cross the ribbons, and ended up with a solid block of layers. To make it easy, I used Sookwang two sided tape as the adhesive.

Here are a few more pictures of my finished book: 

And one more video of the book in action:

Thanks for stopping by! If you are on Instagram, search the hashtag #areyoubookenough to find all the imaginative creations of participating artists. Prepare yourself to be inspired!